1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a battery unit primarily intended for an electric-powered or hybrid-powered motor vehicle and comprising at least one row of a plurality of linked, separate battery cells each having parallel, opposing main limit walls, in which the main limit walls of neighboring battery cells bear substantially flatly one against the other, the neighboring battery cells resting on a support and being mutually oriented such that, with their mutually facing main limit walls, they partially overlap one another.
The invention also relates to a motor vehicle which is equipped with such a battery unit.
2. Related Art
In hybrid-type motor vehicles having a multiplicity of separate battery cells, the positioning of these is often problematical to allow set requirements of good vehicle crash characteristics to be met, since the battery cells take up a relatively large volume which is difficult to deform in the event of a collision. The individual battery cells here form a battery unit which is substantially rectangular, cubic or circular and in which the battery cells stand erect and packed tightly together. They thus form a rigid unit which, in a collision, absorbs the shock load and passes it on to the vehicle construction. This rigid unit therefore has a volume which cannot be used to absorb energy. The result is that the batteries must be placed as safely as possible from the crash area, which often has an adverse effect upon the positioning and configuration of the fuel tank and passenger and luggage compartments, as well as upon the chassis characteristics of the vehicle.
EP 1 071 152 A1 describes a battery unit/motor vehicle of the type described above. In this battery unit, however, there are no means which absolutely ensure that in an impact on the vehicle from the rear or from the side, the battery cells can be compressed and successively deflected upward and possibly forward or sideways.